1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a finisher, which is attached to a copying machine, for inserting papers with a copied image into an exclusive use cover and binding them together to produce a bound document.
2. Description of the Related Art
A finisher is an apparatus normally used in conjunction with a copying machine or a printing machine to place copied sheets of paper under an exclusive use cover, glue them together on the spine of the cover, and bind them automatically to produce a bound document.
This exclusive use cover used for bookbinding is coated with hot-melt adhesive on the inside of an area which corresponds to the spine. The bookbinding is accomplished by heating the spine after inserting a sheaf of papers into such an exclusive use cover to glue them together.
In such a finisher, the sizes of the covers used are standardized to match standard size paper, e.g., A4 and B5 size paper. Consequently, the paper to be bound with such a cover must also have a certain size to fit the cover, i.e., odd size paper can cause various problems. For example, if the paper that does not fit one of the exclusive use covers is used on the finisher, the resultant bound papers will look bad. An improper size of paper causes bad looks, not only when it is too large for the cover, but also when it is too small. An improper size of paper also causes problems in gluing in that the sheets of paper glued to the cover may be insecurely held and can be easily peeled off.
Such problems are particularly conspicuous in a copying machine. This is due to the fact that the size of documents fed into a copying machine is not uniform and has no bearing on the size of the paper to be copied onto. On the other hand, in a case where the output paper size can be specified as in the case of a printer, all that is needed then is to specify a size of paper that matches the size of the exclusive use cover. In other words, the size difference between the exclusive use cover and the paper will never occur in such a case.
The simplest solution for these problems is to match the size of the exclusive use cover with that of the paper being used. However, since the size of the original to be copied varies, it is cumbersome to instruct the copying machine either to enlarge or reduce depending on the situation. Moreover, if the size of a copy has to be reduced from the original, the legibility of characters will be affected, so that the end result, although the bound document itself may be satisfactory in terms of an appearance, may not be useful after all if the legibility of the copied characters is poor.